Fertility Blogger Dies During Childbirth After Sharing Her IVF Journey

For women who struggle with infertility, the process can be a very lonely and isolating one. They may struggle with difficult emotions while watching others around them get pregnant, go on to have babies and children, and wonder when it's their turn, or why something that comes so easily to others is unreachable to them.

And for some women moving through their journey to conceive, it can be a comfort to hear from other women going through the same struggles and emotions. One such woman was Vanessa Fernandez Arango, a 30-year-old fertility blogger from Spain, who decided to document her journey to conceive with her husband, 32-year-old Jonathon, for her many followers. Her followers were appreciative of her openness as she suffered two ectopic pregnancies and resulting emergency surgeries because ectopic pregnancies can be life-threatening.

After all she had been through, her followers also celebrated right alongside her when she announced that she was finally pregnant with a son as a result of IVF. The excited fertility blogger and mom-to-be shared many images of her pregnancy with her son as her belly grew bigger and she grew even more eager to meet her little addition. There wasn't a doubt in anyone's minds that Arango deserved to hold her little boy in her arms after being through so much.

“The beginning of the end. The beginning of feeling life and the end of suffering,” Arango had captioned her pregnancy announcement in May, displaying a photo of a positive pregnancy test. “So here begins our story, our story with a happy ending.”

But unfortunately, all of the same families who celebrated with her would go on to mourn her story, with a much different ending than anyone could have ever predicted.

As reported by local news sources, on September 2, when Arango was 38 weeks pregnant with her little boy, she was eating breakfast when she suddenly fainted after complaining of pain. She was rushed to the hospital, where it became apparent that she had suffered cardiac arrest.

The doctors at the hospital were able to perform an emergency C-section on Arango and her son, Alvaro, was born. Unfortunately, Arango did not survive the cardiac arrest and she died at the hospital. Alvaro survived, despite his mother's passing, and having suffered some health issues as a result, but he was able to be sent to the NICU and recovered there. Without his mother, Alvaro grew thanks to donated breast milk he was able to receive and was able to return home from the NICU after spending two weeks in there.

A heartbroken Jonathon was tasked with the heavy duty of updating his fertilty blogger wife's many fans and followers, many of whom who had found hope in her pregnancy, with the news of her death. Having seen his wife go through so much heartbreak, one can only imagine how much the grieving father felt knowing their son will never meet his wife and how so many who followed her may fear for their own futures.

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But despite his grief, Jonathon has taken the time to address some of his wife's accounts, updating them with the news of her death, and since her passing, even sharing some happier updates of his son's progress.

“I can finally get something positive,” he wrote in one post. “Alvaro is recovering little by little, he still has many tests and will continue for a while in intensive care, but it’s a little step.”

It seems that Jonathon may have found some form of support in the social media accounts that once supported him and his wife in a much different way, as despite noting that he would close the accounts, he has continued to keep them open and give followers updates about his son and his new life as a single father. “I never imagined a goodbye message in her honor would have led to such an avalanche of support…thank you so much for the encouragement and the gestures of love for the two of us.”

He also took the time to declare that he plans to continue what his wife started from the very beginning, through sharing their journey to become parents and helping others along the way, by continuing to share their story. “… A story of struggle, potholes, and overcoming that I wanted to see the light in honor of my wife,” he wrote. “I hope that this story, despite the tragic end, helps and encourages other couples who go through adverse situations to fulfill a dream. I want to thank the newspaper for helping me spread the dream and desire of my wife. And above all, thanks for all the messages I receive every day, you give me a lot of strength to continue forward.”

EverydayFamily.com offers general information and is for educational purposes only. This information is not a substitute for professional medical, psychiatric or psychological advice. Nothing on this website should be taken to imply an endorsement of EverydayFamily.com or its partners by any person quoted or mentioned.

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